Could Elon Musk’s amazing tunnel plan work in Perth?

The entrepreneur has started boring his own tunnel and hopes to create underground highways to change the way our city's transport systems operate.

The West Australian

VideoThe entrepreneur has started boring his own tunnel and hopes to create underground highways to change the way our city's transport systems operate.

A futuristic concept involving the creation of underground road networks has been embraced by transport experts as a potential congestion solution for Australian cities, including Perth.

Global entrepreneur, innovator and billionaire Elon Musk has floated the idea of underground roads after he was caught in Los Angeles congestion in December and tweeted: “Traffic is driving me nuts. Am going to build a tunnel boring machine and just start digging.”

Through his new business, The Boring Company, Mr Musk has explained his idea with the release of an animated video.

Camera IconCars would enter the underground tunnels via lifts which carry them from street level to the tunnels.Picture: The Boring Company/YouTube

It shows “the game changing” concept of a metal elevator that lowers a car to the underground network where vehicles are transported at speeds of up to 200km/h on metal trolley-like platforms — doing away with congestion.

Mr Musk has already purchased a boring machine and is testing it under a carpark of his SpaceX/Tesla office in Los Angeles.

The idea has been branded everything from “amazing” to “impossible” but Australian-based engineering and infrastructure advisory company Aurecon believes it makes a lot of sense and its WA leader Angus Leitch says it could help meet Perth’s future transport needs.

“It may be hard to envisage, but it’s the sort of future we need to start considering,” Mr Leitch said. “Once the construction industry truly begins to embrace innovation and technology, it will become easier to imagine what is possible.

“But you would expect construction costs to come down, especially as we move away from concrete towards a higher strength, lighter weight material for lining tunnels.

“It may even encompass 3-D printing this lining as part of the tunnel excavation cycle.”

Camera IconElon Musk at a presentation in California.Picture: AP

“As cities grow, there is really only two alternatives — up or down. And people might feel safer travelling around in underground tunnels than flying in passenger drones.”

The innovation was announced as parts of a $20 million, 600-tonne boring machine that will dig 7m-wide tunnels under the Swan River and Perth Airport for the Forrestfield-Airport rail link arrived in Perth.

Mr Leitch said Perth people accepted that road infrastructure such as Mitchell Freeway was an absolute necessity. “But imagine if we had our time again and built a system like this underground in its place,” he said. “What a different place Perth would be.”

Camera IconCars would then be carried at high-speed by sled-like platforms through underground tunnels.Picture: The Boring Company/YouTube

Aurecon is working on several tunnel projects in Australia, including Melbourne’s 9km Metro Tunnel and Sydney’s 9km WestConnex M5. Its tunnelling expert Tom Ireland said many major cities had reached their infrastructure capacity “on the ground”.

“These cities are looking at solutions — both above and below the ground — to overcome mobility challenges,” he said. “Musk’s futuristic tunnel system is ambitious and innovative.

Camera IconCars would enter the underground tunnels via lifts which carry them from street level to the tunnels.Picture: The Boring Company/YouTube

“Going underground makes sense and many cities have vast tunnel networks beneath heavily populated areas — for example, the London Underground — so we know it can work.

“A project of this scale would transform the face of transport as we currently know it.”

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The West Australian

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